Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto has directed all schools to discontinue ordering and using peanut-based products until further notice, the state Department of Education reported this morning.

Hawaii public school breakfast and lunch menus have not included peanut-based products for more than two years. However, peanut-based products may have been purchased as part of a school-based snack or food service program.

School cafeteria managers were directed to conduct a review of food inventories last week. No products listed on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recall list were found on cafeteria shelves.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's investigation of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella infections and deaths has been traced back to the Peanut Corporation of America.

"In light of the growing list of peanut-based recalled items by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the moratorium on peanut-based products in Hawaii's public schools is an extra safety precaution," Hamamoto said in a news release.

According to the state Department of Health, none of the three known Hawaii cases of Salmonella typhimurium that are linked with the nationwide outbreak has had a verifiable exposure to any of the peanut products identified on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recall list.

A list of recalled products is available from the FDA at http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html#recalls.